


Hero

by Minatsuki



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: AU where Ryan is younger than everybody, I love Buddy!, M/M, Ryan hates everything but his dog, because I need to make him stupid and insecure, i don't know how to tag, ohmtoonz, things get dark quickly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-09-01 02:44:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8604097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minatsuki/pseuds/Minatsuki
Summary: This world is full of crap. Ryan knows it, but he still can't accept it. But he had no other choice than to accept it.He will live and die like this. He can never be saved.But at least he can save a dog, can't he?then maybe someone will save him.





	1. Buddy

Ah, rainy day. When the sky is colored with beautiful grey. And silver rain falls to the grey asphalt

“P, please forgive me! I s-swear I’d get those money! J, Just give me two-, no one month!”

Ah, rainy day. I’m beyond saving isn’t it?

_WHACK!_

 

I opened the door of a small office in abandoned block. There’s more than 10 people inside it, wearing the same grey jacket as mine. Slowly I close the door behind me and pulled off mask.

“Is he done?”

The biggest man in that room talks to me. I nod.

“Good, that piece of trash should be dispatched long time ago. All he did is wasting our time. Not that he made us a lot of money. Only couple of hundred dollars. Heh, his life is only worth couple hundred dollars”

“…can I go now?”

He shrugged. “Oh, sure. Go home and get your beautiful sleep.” He shooed me.

I open the door again, and right when I’m about to close it tight, I heard him.

“Pussy”

I didn’t look back. Maybe it’s because I’m scared of them. Or I can’t stand with them. But for the most part, it definitely because of my helplessness. I can’t change this situation of mine.

I grew up with my family. Until 14 years old, I didn’t know how harsh this life could be. Then they decided to get rid of me. Maybe because they no longer love our family, or they simply hate me.

I don’t know and I don’t want to know.

This heart felt so hollow. The only thing that helps me calm down is the rain, and the beautiful grey sky. The sky that colored my heart.

As I’m cooling down my head, I heard the sound of barking far away. It mixed up with the sound of yelling man too.

How uncomfortable.

I decide to see what’s wrong over there. I see a dog barking at a man with a broom in front of a block of apartment. Every time the dog bark, the man tried to smack it with broom. The dog is clever enough to dodge some of the hit, but the rains make it slips and fell to the asphalt. As the man seeing this, he didn’t waste his chance to smack the dog.

The dog howls painfully.

“Can’t you stop this please?”

I asked politely. The man looks at me annoyed.

“Who the fuck are you? Mind your own business!”

“I’ll call someone and accuse you for animal abuse if you didn’t stop this”

He glared at me, maybe checking if I’m serious or not. Serious or not, I don’t like this continuing. I glared him back to make him think I’m serious enough to hit him.

He seems to be reluctant to give up by random 20 years old boy. But before he leaves, he give a clean strike to the body of the dog. I was too busy to worrying about the dog and not notice him fleeing away immediately.

Crap, I hate people so much.

But I’m no different from that people isn’t it? I smacked someone to hell with a metal bat today. The sound is so similar that it makes me think I’m the one who did it to this dog. The surge of self-disgust overwhelming my body. I tried to not thinking about it and worry about the dog. At least let me save this poor dog.

It’s still whimpering and I carefully pick it up. I asked an old man in a parked car about nearest vet. He seems startled at first. But not only he give me directions, he also asked me for a ride to it. I’m too panic to think if the person is bad or good. All I’m thinking is whether this dog can be saved or not. When we reach there, I rush to receptionist immediately.

“Can someone save this dog!?”

The whole people in the room startle by my voice. I don’t care if they’re worried or scared. I need a vet right now. A blond tall man comes out from a door with a basket.

“First, calm down. Put him here and leave it to me. Your dog will be alright, don’t worry”

It’s not mine. I slowly put it in the basket with a soft towel. I stand on my spot nervously for quite long time until the old man that came with me, tell me to have a seat and he needs to go back to pick up his son. He pray the best for the dog too. He’s nice. I like him.

Maybe there’s still a good people. Maybe I’m so unfortunate to never meet them before. Or maybe I’m supposed to not meet them for the rest of my life. Yeah, this is only a coincidence that at the right time someone help me. He and the vet only help me because they don’t know me. If they know about me… that I killed someone earlier… I’m sure…

_They won’t even stand seeing me here._

“Um, are you alright?”

A girl beside me looked at me worriedly. This girl too, doesn’t know about me. That’s why she can worried about me.

But did I tremble that much? I thought I’m good at keeping things to myself. But my hands and legs won’t stop shaking.

Calm down, Ryan. Calm down…

“Hey, you. Yes, you. You can come inside now.”

The tall blond man who took my dog seems talking to me. I follow him to the next room. There’s couple working desk and a lot of cribs in there. He guide me to one of the crib. And there it is. The dog seems a lot better now. Thank goodness, I’m relieved.

“Your dog is fine. He should be up and active again in a week, but he needs a lot of rest and shouldn’t be forcing his body.”

He smiled at me. I don’t like when people smiled at me. He guide me to another room. A smaller room with more tables and paper.

“So, about your dog…”

“Can’t you stop talking like that already? It’s not my dog.”

He glare at me. I don’t know why, but he glare at me hard.

“Well then, let’s start with how you met _him_ then.”

“I just take a walk under the rain when I saw a man hitting the dog. I tried to stop him but then he smack _it_ harder. While I’m worrying about _it_ , he already gone. I immediately asked a random person who kind _enough_ to drive me here and here I am.”

“Hmm, this is a problem. _He_ needs a week resting here and it can’t be free. If _he_ is abandoned, to whom should I get my pay then? Maybe I should return _him_ to wherever _he_ was and forget this ever happens.”

“It doesn’t matter as long as you get your pay isn’t it? I’ll pay it. So keep the dog here.”

“Are you sure you can pay it?”

“How much is it anyway?”

“It’s $1000”

Crap… that’s quite lot of money. Is this really worth it? I want to save it but I’m not quite sure where to get that amount of money immediately. My life is quite messy enough with little money I have. Should I?

“I’m not sure a young man who come here wet to the bones have that much money to spend.”

“Oh, shut up. I’ll bring the money and you treat the dog alright? I don’t want to see _it_ getting worse next week”

“ _Him_ ”

“Oh, fuck you and your pronoun”

He smile at me again. This person really is getting on my nerve.

“This is my id card. I know you need that for paper work. Keep it until next week. I don’t use it that much anyway” I drop my card to him.

“You know, the paper work doesn’t need that long time. You can sit for another minute.” He examined my card, maybe checking if the card is really mine or not.

“And seeing you smiling at me like an idiot? No thanks.”

I immediately take my leave to the door.

“Don’t forget you have time until next week okay? We don’t do charity here!”

Fuck people

 

<Bryce P.O.V.>

Hehehe. That was fun. Annoying people isn’t my hobby, but I like observing people’s reaction. Well, he’s the first one to get to my nerve anyway. Nobody refers animals as _thing_ in front of me. Nobody.

So his name is Ryan… hmm… wait, he has no last name. That’s weird.

Well, he has one week time to get the money. This clinic doesn’t take credits, so I’ve paid the $1200 bill already. So where did $200 go? That’s my payment for him to tell that touching story. Unfortunately he didn’t get my heart enough to pay the bill half.

Anyway, I think Luke asked me to hang out. Since my shift is over, I should get to there before he got drunk.

 

<Luke P.O.V.>

“Oh, not this crap again”

Here I am, at a fucking crime scene. A man on the floor, with injury from blunt weapon on the head. With a big gravity that says ‘REKT!’ with grey paint, it’s quite obvious who did it. Oh, how I love this easy job. There’s a CCTV around the site, and someone record it using a computer. The only person I can saw clearly is the person who hits the CCTV with metal bat himself.

But I feel more content if I can grab this gang and pulled them off one by one like a tangled string. They’re getting full of themselves lately. I don’t like these kind of people in this society.

Argh! I’m angry when I’m pissed! Let’s get some booze to cool this head off.

When I reached at the usual shop I visit, Bryce is already there. Is he purposely arrived earlier to check my alcohol intake? I thought he’s a veterinarian… wait, is he thinking I’m a dog that he needs to be taken care of?

“Oh, hello Luke!”

“Let me tell you something, my beard might be great enough to fool you that I’m dog, but I’m 100% human”

“Aaaand, I’m already lost you”

We laugh.

“Anyway, talking about dog, there’s something interesting happening in clinic.”

And he talk his long ass story about a young man and his dog. I don’t think I want to repeat it again.

“So, I brought his ID card to you. Maybe he can be a good candidate? Personally, I would pound him if I didn’t have a girlfriend already”

He dropped an ID card towards me.

“I thought you’re not gay?”

“I’m not gay. I’m bisexual. Learn the difference”

“Hmm…”

I’m not really convinced. To me, he doesn’t looked that happy with his girlfriend. But that’s not my problem right?

I pick up the card and look at him. Something click in my brain. It’s him. He’s the one who broke the CCTV. So he’s part of the gang?

So, his name is Ryan. I’ll remember it.


	2. Struggle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan decides to work hard to pay it off.  
> Of course everything will going well.  
> Right?
> 
> Why it's so hard to decide chapter name!?

$1000 isn’t a money that you can easily get in a week, especially to homeless people like me. At least I’ll do what I can do for now, and if it’s still not enough, I hope they don’t get too mad at me. Sigh. There’s a part-time job that I always do for living. I can’t do full-time job as the gang always haunted me everywhere. I don’t want to cause a ruckus in my work place. But I have no other choice now.

I open a back door of a common family restaurant. It’s pretty new restaurant. There’s not many worker here, but the restaurant keep getting more and more customer. Hopefully I can persuade my manager to give me more work.

I change to my work outfit and walk to manager’s room. The manager is an Asian man, pretty build up, and sometimes quite scary. I gathered my courage and open the manager’s room.

“Excuse me, sir…”

The manager noticed me and stop writing in his journal.

“Yeah, what do you need?”

“I’d like to talk about my shift, sir”

“What? You want a day off?”

“Quite the opposite, sir. I’m in need of money and I’d like to have more shifts for that.”

“Oh, that’s alright then. What clock you want to work in?”

“If possible, I’d like to work as much as I can”

He locks his eyes on me. Am I going to be turned down?

“Do you really in dire need of that money?”

“Yes, sir…” I gulped.

“How much do you need?”

“$1000 sir, I’ll need it by next week”

“And how do you think I’ll get that much money to pay you?”

“I’m sorry sir, I’ll find a way to cover the rest. Please let me work my best”

He sighs.

“Alright, I’ll rearrange your shift later. But you know what? Quality is better than quantity”

“…Um, yes?”

“You didn’t get what I mean aren’t you? What I’m trying to say is, if you work better I’ll give you a raise. You know this isn’t easy on me right? So go work yourself hard.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you very much” I bow to him. “Please excuse me, sir” I walk my way to the door.

“Also, you need to work your way on giving service. Do you notice that you hardly smile at customer? You should try to do it more”

That’s a tall task.

“…yes sir” I mumble.

Smile at customers? The one that bring family? I don’t know if I can do this… But at least… at least I’ll try okay?

Right when I’ve decided to try, demons posed as family comes through the front door. I approach them and try to give my smile.

“Welcome, for how many seats?”

And hopefully my jealousy doesn’t showed up in my smile.

 

 

<Luke P.O.V.>

The worst part about ID card that Bryce gave me is… there’s nothing specific I can track about him.

First, his name only consist first name which apparently also the first name of a lot people in this country.

Second, his address only had street name and room number. It didn’t said which building or even a postal code. I’ve wasted most of my day asking people about him to apartment managers, only to find out that he got kicked out few months ago because he couldn’t pay the rent.

Third is his birth date. Since birth date and name combination seems a nice filter to search him down, but apparently it is not. Others Ryan who born on 28 June is not from this state or no longer live here, and the only Ryan who lived in this state is already on deceased status.

Fourth is this ID number which is so blurred and had burn mark. Actually all the characters in his ID card are hardly readable. After hours of cracking the number, I finally able to trace it down… to the deceased Ryan. His photo is very different.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t search on dead people. I close my laptop and stretch a bit. I feel a bit hungry, should I get something to eat?

The nearest restaurant is a restaurant from my friend of friend. Maybe if I’m lucky, I can get a discount being his friend of friend! Or not…

I enter the restaurant and having a seat myself. A waiter comes to me and I order a couple sandwiches and a cup of coffee. I lay back to the chair and relaxing myself. This restaurant of him is still quite empty, but definitely better than before. Seems like he hired couple of worker since my last visit.

Hm?

Is my eyes playing tricks on me? Why the waiter over there looks exactly like Ryan I’m looking for? I immediately stand up and approach him. He looks bewildered seeing me approaching him.

“I, is there something I can do for you, sir?” He asked meekly.

“Are you Ryan?”

“Yes… I am”

“Can we have a little talk behind the shop?”

“Erm…”

“What business do you have with my worker?”

A familiar Asian man appears from the back of the shop. He glares at me.

“Oh, Evan! It’s been long time we haven’t met”

“Who the fuck are you?”

“That hurts. You know who I am. Friend of a friend”

“Oh, I remember. You’re Jo’s friend aren’t you? I remember your beard”

Great, apparently he only recognize me from my beard. A plan to never shave beard seems perfect to me.

“Anyway, whatever your business is, don’t talk in the shop. Come here”

Evan guides me and Ryan to the employee room. He arranges 3 chairs to triangle and sit on one of them.

“So, um… Are you going to hear this conversation?” I ask.

“What? Who do you think the owner of this place?”

“Dude, I’m only asking!”

I cough couple times and reach for my recorder in my pocket. I turn it on and begin this. I noticed Ryan flinches when he noticed me.

“Don’t worry this is only a helper to remember what I’m saying” I bluff.

But he doesn’t seems to believe it. Whatever.

“Alright, my name Luke Patterson and I’m an inspector. I’m here to ask you some question. Is that alright for you?”

There’s a quite long pause until he replied.

“…sure”

“So your name is Ryan right?”

“Yes”

“What’s your last name?”

“I don’t have one”

“And why is that?”

“Personal reason”

Damn, he’s good.

“So where do you live?”

“Somewhere near”

“Yeah, but where is that in specific?”

“Nowhere”

He’s a hard nut to crack! Seems like I can’t get personal information about him at all. But as long as he’s still working here, I can always check him myself. Until he stop working here obviously.

“Do you know about gang that recently making ruckus around this area?”

He seems more focus on me now. “I do”. Can’t say I didn’t expect this answer. “My colleagues told me the other day.”

“There’s something I want to ask. Where are you in the afternoon 2 days ago?”

“My home”

“And where is that?”

“Nowhere”

Right before I try to pry him more, Evan coughs twice and glares at me. Did I cross the line somewhere?

“Listen here. I want to make sure people can live here safely so I would need your cooperation”

“Oh, _do_ you?” He glares at me. “I don’t care what you are trying to, but if there’s people I would never trust, that’s the cops” I feel a lot of hatred from his words.

I know a lot of people don’t trust cops, but I want people to know that I become a cops truly to save somebody.

“Are you done now? I need to go back to work”

“Yeah, let’s end this for today” Evan adds.

Ryan bows a bit to Evan and go back to the shop. He didn’t even give a glance to me.

“Sorry if he’s a bit thorny, but the moment you say you’re a cop is a big mistake”

“Yeah, it seems like it. I can’t help with people who hates cop”

I sigh. Evan offered a cup of coffee, which I happily accept it.

“He doesn’t have home” Evan said when he drink his coffee. “When he applied here, he said he needs money for food. When I ask his address, he said he was kicked from his apartment and currently living in an abandoned car near here.”

I sip my coffee.

“As you can see, my business isn’t that great to pay someone his residence. But he said he doesn’t mind, he only needs enough food and has no plan to get place to sleep near future. He said… he wants to live in a right way for once. The way he believes in. But he can’t change it right away, that’s why he hoped that I would give him a chance for it, so I did.”

“Be careful for that, I think you are quite vulnerable to scam” I warned him.

But he smiles a little to me instead.

“You think so? Well, maybe that’s the case. Maybe that’s the reason why my business isn’t growing as I hope it would be. But I do learn from every time I get scammed. And I believe that he’s a kind person from his heart.”

“What makes you think like that?”

“Yesterday, he asked me to get him more shifts. It’s contradictory to his reason to work, so I ask his reason. He said he needs $1000 dollars by next week, and he didn’t mind if I can’t pay him that much. He said he’ll find a way to cover the rest.”

“You swayed easily even if you have that composure looks”

“Haha, maybe. It’s quite tiring to put strict looks all day you know”

I took last sip on my coffee before standing up.

“I should get going now”

“Sure, visit me some other time and maybe bring Jonathan with you”

“I’ll think about it”

I go to the shop and go straight to the cashier. I ask my order before to be packed and pay for it. Then I walk out from the restaurant.

I need to re-think about this again before making an action.

 

 

<Ryan P.O.V>

It’s near midnight when I finally finish my shifts for today. My body hurts all over. I need to adapt with my new schedule now. I try avoiding small and dark places because I know. There’s somebody observing my movement.

I arrived at a well-lit park near a busy road. I noticed there’s a movement around the bushes. They’ve been waiting for me huh.

“What do you want?” I ask loudly.

The bushes makes sounds again and one of them appeared from the bush. Of course I know who that is. The biggest-build man in the gang who apparently the leader too.

“Well, well, Ryan. I noticed you haven’t showed up in couple days. I thought you’ve either died or got caught”

“Just state your business”

“Little Ryan, that’s not a way to talk to someone who owns you isn’t it? Let us move to a better place than this…”

Suddenly something hit from my back head. Then there’s a laugh from behind.

“…and teach you some manners”

And everything goes black.


	3. Suffering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because of this chapter, I have to add rape warning and change the audience to mature.
> 
> This is probably the part I want to write the most. I'm so excited when I write it.  
> Don't hate me please.

<Luke P.O.V>

I hate night shift. My sleepiness on night can’t be fight with caffeine. So I usually just go patrolling to make my brain stay awake. As usual the area is so dark and silent. Sometimes it helps me regain my thoughts. Especially after my conversation with Ryan and Evan yesterday.

I know Evan want to change my old habits, thinking I should do it as how a cops should be. I’m sure Evan and Ryan himself know, that I suspect him being a part of the gang or at least have a connection to it. Evan wants me to try seeing this Ryan as his whole person, not only this case. Maybe there’s some circumstances that make him join the gang. Maybe he has no choice for it.

But I don’t know anything about his life. I only know him from what others told me. I can’t make decision with just these information. I need to know him more.

It’s 8 PM, I should go back before I got scolded. When I’m back, I see a familiar man yet uncommon to be there.

“Evan”

Evan is just sitting in front of police officer’s desk and switch his glance to me.

“Luke”

“What happened? You finally got your money stolen?”

“No it isn’t” He switch his glance back to the desk. “Or at least I hope that’s not the case. I hope it’s just me being too worry”

“Tell me”

“Ryan… didn’t come to work at all. He usually tell me first if there’s something urgent and he needs day off. But he didn’t tell me anything yesterday. The only thing I noticed about him is he seemed cautious as he looked outside the shop, especially when it’s night. And… he asked to be dismissed earlier that day, but I can’t give special treatment to him. That was the last time I saw him.”

“Maybe he thought he’s been sniffed and decided to take off? That’s probably the case”

“LUKE!” Evan raises his voice. “Didn’t you become cops to save someone? Didn’t you and I promise to never use others’ eye to judge someone? Didn’t we promise it to Jonathan!?”

_“You’re just being confused by your feelings! Snap out of it!”_

_“Aren’t you happy now, Jonathan?”_

_“Ah, yes… I… am happy…”_

_“Luke… I’m screwed, man… I can’t be happy... not like this…”_

_“This life of mine is so humiliating…”_

_“…I want to end everything…”_

_“...right now…”_

Evan is out of breathe after yelling at the police office. When someone wants to lecture him being noisy, I stop him.

“…I’d rather find out that he’s after my money and have no plan to change himself. I’d rather that… than finding out later that he’s in trouble and in need of someone’s help.”

He feel guilty. He’s crushed by guilt of the past. And I am too. He almost lost one of his best friend, and I almost lost my brother. There’s no way he wants to feel it again.

He must be quite fond with this Ryan. That’s what Evan Fong is great at. He’s great at faking his feelings in front of the person he valued. I don’t know this Ryan, but I’ll try to get know to him.

“Alright, alright. You hear him boys. Gather everyone and we’ll search this Ryan guy to every inch of this city!”

 

 

<Ryan P.O.V>

_SPLASH!_

_Cough cough_

“Finally feels awake, Sleeping Beauty?”

I can’t focus my eyes. Looks like the one in front of me is the leader, sitting on a box. I can’t see much as this room is so dark. Seems like my hands are tied.

“We’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Look! The sun is set already. Do you know what that means?”

“I know! I know!” I heard others’ voices besides him.

“Of course everybody knows! Idiot!”

Then laughter cracks to the room.

“That’s right! That means the fun is starting now”

_SPLASH!_

_Cough cough_

It’s so cold. The water is colder than the earlier one. God, will this thing stops already?

“Why are you trembling? Are you feeling cold? Do you want us to take off your wet clothes?”

“Gladly!!”

They untie my hand. Then I sense some hands touching me. I feel so nausea, I want to throw up. Each of my arm is held by someone.

“Oh my, you have a quite nice body. Must be nice being you, Mr. Handsome. Are you still feeling cold? Maybe this thing can help you”

I see he has something in his hand. I don’t know what that is. The only thing that I know is I must survive until God knows when. There’s no way to escape this with all gang being here and I feel dizzy.

“I heard whiplash can stings like you’re being burned. I hope they’re right. We don’t want our friends died because of freezing aren’t we?”

_WHACK!_

I yelp in pain. That thing hurts so much! “Seems like someone enjoying it!”

_WHACK! WHACK!_

I firmly shut my mouth, trying to reduce the pain. I smell rusted iron in my mouth. I noticed I unconsciously bite my lower lip.

This painful activity continues for quite a long time, I think. I’m not in right mind to concentrate what they do to me nor which part is hurt. Everything is hurt.

They talking to each other, then whip me, then laugh, then whip me again, and sometimes they kicked my head or stomach. The stench of rusted iron become more concentrated in my mouth. Some of the blood already drops to the floor.

“Good Lord! You hurt the porcelain doll! We haven’t even get into the main attraction!”

They become noisier. I hear they begin to blame each other. Can’t listen clearly to what they said. I don’t notice my hands are free until they pour me ice water.

_SPLASH!_

Yes, it is ice water. I can feel ice blocks hit my head and body. They pour me couple times again. My body become cold and trembling again. The cold stings my head so much, that I don’t know if it’s still functioning or not.

Then I sense a warmth on my cheeks. A warmth of assurance that melts my brain again. And I know what kind of warmth is that.

The warmth I don’t ever want to know, the fake warmth. There’s no assurance behind it. I feel warmth again on my hand, chest, tight. I feel faint breathe near my neck, chest, and back.

Hands. They’re everywhere on my body. It feels like they’re robbing my body and breaking it to half

If this doesn’t break my body, it would break my mind.

 

 

Why do I want to survive again?

No?

That’s right.

 

I want to die…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be slight H2OVanoss, but let me confess it. I'm not really into H2OVanoss, so I didn't plan for its development. But if anyone wants it, I think I can make it. It might delay the progress of OhmToonz though.
> 
> Or I can always hang both of them in a thread ;)


	4. Rescue

It’s 10 PM now, No one still have report about Ryan’s whereabouts. Luke feels his worry increasing every area they’ve swept. It shouldn’t be that hard to find a person, unless something happened.

At first it was unofficial sweep, from his neighborhood to place where people usually hang outs. If he is nowhere around there, it’s most likely linked to Luke’s investigation about Ryan’s connection to the gang. Then they’ve gone through all the report of suspicious activity reports come into police, and they’ve swept all the suspected area from inner city to outskirts.

Then one of the police gives some interesting suggestion. He said that there’s infamous place for his people for troublemaker or hoodlum to hide. It’s about few miles away from outskirt of the city.

An abandoned complex of villa. Most of it already finished but he said something happened so the project couldn’t be completed and the developer run away.

Of all villas, there’s one particular that has lights on. There’s some people in that building. Police tries to sneak in but the people inside seems to notice them.

“Police! Run!”

Police manages to catch couple of them, but most of them fled through backdoor. Luke is looking around the building for Ryan. He should be here since the gang is here. He checked every room and the last room is not something he expected. There’s only one word perfectly describe it.

Sickening.

Stench of sex, sweat and blood mixed up. The room is humid and quite dark but has enough light to see there’s a person laying on the floor.

A person with brown hairs with bruises and scars all over his body, is laying on the floor with half-opened eyes. Luke checks his pulse and breathing. Ryan is still alive but his breathe is short. His eyes can’t focus on the person who’s holding him right now. They’re not even blink simultaneously.

Luke immediately calls the ambulance, and within few minutes it arrived at their place. He covers Ryan with his coat and brings him to ambulance. He orders one of his boys to accompany the victim to hospital and continue with his work with couple suspects. Not much things he can get from them as they persistently to keep silent. They say their family and relatives would be on danger if they spill anything about the gang. So the police decides to apprehend them for now while the victim, Ryan, is sent to nearest hospital.

<Luke POV>

‘Ugh… How I face Evan now…’

I failed to save someone, again. I thought I had changed since Jonathan’s incident. But I still can’t save anyone. Or maybe I’ve changed, but it still not enough? Am I even capable to become an inspector?

Unconsciously a groan sound slips from my mouth.

There’s no use to cry over spilled fucking beer. For now I’ll look information around those gang, especially the leader. Then I’ll use any laws to sue him for death penalty, which is probably not going to happen. But he won’t get away from me, not easily. Then my evil thoughts dispersed as my phone rings.

When did he get my number?

“When did you get my number?”

“I asked Jo. Anyway, have you found him?”

“Yeah, I found him.”

“Is he alright?” Evan asked worriedly.

“He’s alright” I lied. “Kinda involved in a case, but nothing to worry about. The police will need to ask him a few things and his cooperation, so he won’t be around for a while”

“Okay… but he will be alright, right?”

“Of course, he’s under my surveillance now since I’m the one who ordered his search”

“I see… I guess I can leave him with you...”

“Yup”

“…Luke?”

“…yeah?”

“…Nevermind… I… I’ll call you later… Bye”

“Ah, okay…”

Well, that was awkward, but that’s how our conversation usually went. I only talk to him once or twice in person when we’re still ‘acquaintances’. Never heard of him again since _that_ happened.

Well, since he left me with responsibilities, I guess I should get going now. I get into a police car and drive to the hospital

 

<Ryan POV>

_I woke up in my bed. It’s my bedroom from my house, the one that I supposed to leave when I’m in junior high school. Why I’m here? Is everything just a bad dream? That must be it. My family still loves me after all. It’s just a bad dream._

_“Hahaha… Haaah… Thank goodness…”_

_“Ryan?”_

_A voice coming from my bedroom door startled me. A voice that brings warmth and keep the nightmare away. The door slowly reveals my parents who walked to my room._

_“Are you okay, my son?” My dad asked me worriedly. He reached my back and pat it softly._

_It’s so warm, it brings my tears out without me knowing. I hugged my dad tightly. It feels like it has been a long time I haven’t hug him._

_“Dad, mom… I love you both… did you love me?”_

_“Hahaha… what’s wrong with you today? Of course I love you! There, go give your mom a hug too before she envies me” Dad said as he released my arms and patted my head._

_“Haha… What are you saying dear? I love you too, my son.”_

_She slowly reached out her arms and hugged me. Her warm hugs that could makes dream continues forever._

**_“…That’s what you expect me to say, right?”_ **

The jolt of realization hurts my body, but it doesn’t matter. I feel so cold. I draw blanket and curl up on bed.

That’s right. At that time, that’s what she said right? That’s why she threw me out and left me, right?

A warm tears from my eyes is slowly rolling to the bed sheets.

She didn’t love me… She never loves me…

“Erm… Are you alright? Want me to call the nurse?”

Then I realize a person next to my bed, a quite tall man with fluffy beard.


End file.
